New French Presses have arrived!

Just a heads up, we've added the Chambord French press, by Bodum, to our accessories page. It labeled as a "4-cup press," which is about a mug and a half, or to coffee drinkers like us "enough for one person." This is the orginal French Press, designed in Normandy, France in 1924. Constructed from glass and chrome-plated brass, it's one of their most beautiful preses. The Chambord might make a perfect stocking stuffer!! Click here to check it out.

Weekend demo's are a success!

This weekend's demos @ Hunger Mountain and Shelburne Supermarket were a success. Thanks so much to everyone that came out and drank coffee with us. We demoed our Organic Nicaragua coffee, our Organic French Roast, and the Organic Colombia Reserva.

Our next demo will be this Friday at City Market in downtown Burlington during lunch time. Come see us! We're signing everyone that visits our demo station up for a drawing to win a free pound of coffee. We're also going to start giving away coupons to use on the website to people that come to the demos.

Here's a couple pics from Hunger Mountain on Saturday:






Here's Joe hamming it up with some coffee nerds about the difference between our French Roast, and your average burnt coffee that the competition labels "French Roast."














Now a crowd begins to grow as people smell freshly brewed coffee!









Cya soon!
Matt

My Brother Larry

My brother’s name is Larry Greene. Woodworking and cabinetry are his trade. He said to me one time that he was thinking of changing his name to Lorenzo Verde. Something with more flair as to augment his businesses image to attract more clients. He started going over this in a deep Spanish/Italian/muddled fake accent. “bon journo, ima Lorenzo Verde! I mova da wooda with a sharpa toola.”

I am better at making fun of the French accent. Do French people drink coffee? They must. French press. French roast. French vanilla. Café au lait. Oui oui!

I have had a few compliments on the French roast I roast. It’s an organic blend balancing heavy, robust body with even, smooth acidity. I try not to burn out all of the flavor from my coffee so I set a desired temperature which exposes oils on the beans but not so much that they become saturated and sticky with oil. I guess you could say my French roast is a full city + with a robust characteristic. Giving the impression of a dark roasted coffee with hints of carbonization but retaining the complex, taste profile of the coffee. Give it a try, and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your feedback.

The Roast Master

I loved my little, red 1979 Volvo 242 - her two doors and wool seats and lack of air conditioning - she was always dependable; an absolute joy even in 100 degree heat. On sunny days, I'd get into my car and go to the café where I worked to amp up on some double espresso shots for an hour or so. When I got back into my boiling car, I was buzzing. Everything had that 60's high-school yearbook fantasy picture fuzz on it. Driving while impaired on caffeine, I tried not to hit anyone while flying through the city in my ancient, beat-up Volvo, singing and restlessly agitated by the caffeine.


That café had an unbelievable machine from space. The agtron control system and mass spectrometer used to determine roast degree was impressive. She was dialed in, roaring, turning, and exiting. Blue, silver, chrome, brass, and coffee oil. For some, a coffee-roasting machine is like a big steam engine.... like a huge tractor when you were a kid. Some people when they see it say, "Wow, that’s a big coffee maker!" or "Hey look, a gigantic coffee grinder!"

Roast science has been evolving for a while now, and people discovered that coffee is the most aromatically diverse food or drink on the planet. There are over some 850 volatile aromatic compounds, many of which are still misunderstood. The roast master controls the induction of heat and air over a time period, and this determines how these sugars,chemicals, and compounds react with each other, and ultimately determines the quality of the roasted product.

Density and moisture content are major factors when roasting. Also, barometric pressure and humidity effect how air and temperature work with the beans in a roast chamber. Whether you are using a drum roaster or a fluid bed air roaster, this technical information can affect the quality, finish, and degree of roast.

Each coffee from its different growing region has unique properties and is analyzed, tested, tasted, graded, and so on. I take information like density and moisture content and roast the coffee to magnify its individual characteristics. I try not to dark-roast coffee because it loses a lot of delicate aromatic and taste properties due to carbonization of sugars and other factors. Many customers favor a dark roast, so I do try to make a blend of a few coffees with different taste profiles and roast them a slight degree darker then a medium roast to get a rounded full-bodied cup while still preserving the aromatic and taste properties.

If this information is useless to you - don’t worry! My French roast rocks! Try it!